If I want 50 children I will...and you can pay, says benefits dad

BRITAIN’S benefits gravy-train was under the spotlight yesterday as a jobless couple, raking in tens of thousands of pounds in hand-outs each year, were promised a six-bedroom council home – to cater for 10 of their 12 children.

Tim Fisk, 43, and his heavily-pregnant partner Mandy Ball, 41, will have their terraced house knocked through into next door to create a giant home worth £300,000.

Despite a deluge of protests, former security guard Mr Fisk last night insisted that his family were entitled to the extra space, slamming his critical neighbours for being “jealous”.

Mr Fisk claimed: “Everyone has the right to decide how many children they can have. If I wanted 50 children, that is my decision.

“Who has got the right to tell me what to do? Why should anyone stick their noses into other people’s business?

“Getting this larger house is the right thing for us. We are really overcrowded at the moment and I cannot see any other answer.”

Heavily pregnant Mandy Ball [ALBANPIX]

The Fisk family rakes in up to £35,000 annually in benefits, including income support, housing benefit, child allowance, disability allowance, council tax reduction and carer’s allowance.

The £6,000 cost of adapting the two houses in Ipswich, Suffolk, into one home will also be paid for by hard-working taxpayers.

The Government recently introduced a benefits cap of £26,000 – £500 a week – on all households, but those with a person on disability allowance are exempt. Labour-run Ipswich Borough Council claim the Fisk family had “an unusual situation”.

Mr Fisk, who has not worked for several years and who refused to disclose exactly how much his family receives in benefits, moved into his current house with Miss Ball seven years ago.

He insisted he was unable to work as he had to be a full-time carer to his son Daniel, 14, who is blind in one eye and has serious learning difficulties.

Mr Fisk also claimed that he was having to care for Miss Ball as she had suffered from severe depression since losing a baby boy in childbirth in 2008. She is expecting their latest baby next month and the pair are said to be “thrilled” that their enlarged property may be ready in time for Christmas.

But critics branded the situation last night as “ludicrous” and there have been protests from neighbours plus anger from the local MP.

Residents in the same road as the Fisks on Ipswich’s Maidenhall estate – 84 of whom have signed a petition against the conversion – called the decision a “waste of taxpayers’ money” for a family that is like “an ant colony”.

One neighbour said: “She has been here for seven or eight years and she has had a child every year. Imagine the benefits they must be on. We’re fed up with it.”

The family home will be knocked through to next door [ALBANPIX]

Matthew Sinclair, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “It’s ludicrous two valuable council houses are being combined to create a taxpayer-funded mansion.”

Ben Gummer, Conservative MP for Ipswich, said: “This shows why we need to continue with benefit reforms – to ensure that people can only take on respon­sibilities that they can afford.”

But Mr Fisk added: “I am just disgusted with the attitude of the people who have objected.”

Some of the 12 Fisk children on holiday in Great Yarnmouth [ALBANPIX]

His family receive housing benefit, meaning they pay only £40 a week towards their current £90 rent. The larger house will have a rent of £109 a week.

The decision to combine the properties comes despite there being 3,203 people on the housing waiting list, with 391 of these eligible for three-bedroom homes.

The council said: “This is a very unusual situation and not something we would normally contemplate doing. But we believe this is the most cost-effective option.”